Chad States currently lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. His series ‘Cruising’ was recently published as a book by PowerHouse Books.  About the series States writes:

‘With my photographs of cruising, the search for anonymous gay sex in parks and public spaces, I am interested in confirming and celebrating the sexual intimacy, however fleeting, that happens there. While a majority of the population see quick sex, especially among homosexual men, to be amoral and dirty; I see it as potentially romantic. The landscapes in which these men make sexual connections in are not dark and terrible places but tranquil and beautiful. When the way that people interact in the world is increasingly virtual I want to reconfirm the desire to enter the natural world and make physical contact with a stranger.

‘I feel it is this unknown potential that the landscape holds that is one of the most alluring elements to cruising. It is this sense of possibility that heightens the cruising experience which the photographs resonate with. I am interested in creating a sense of fantasy in which the viewer can be seduced by the romanticism of the landscape yet feel a tension from the possibility of this unknown, a sublime place where one can loose themselves both physically and psychologically’.

This post was contributed by photographer Maja Daniels.